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NCEES Frequently Asked Questions

  1. NCEES Exam
  2. NCEES Frequently Asked Questions

US engineering licensure is a recognized authorization to practice the profession. It is legally required in the United States in order to work as an engineering consultant or offer engineering services to the public. The license is also recognized in various parts of the world, and many international employers and companies require licensure for advancement to senior engineering positions.

According to NCEES, "Professional licensure protects the public by enforcing standards that restrict practice to qualified individuals who have met specific qualifications in education, work experience and exams."

You can read more about licensure on the NCEES website.

Licensed engineers also enjoy more career options. As a licensed professional engineer, you would be able to perform certain tasks, such as:

  • Stamp and seal designs
  • Bid for government contracts
  • Be the principal of a firm
  • Perform consulting services
  • Offer services to the public

Watch this video from NCEES to learn more about the benefits of becoming a licensed professional engineer.

  1. Obtain an engineering degree from an ABET-accredited institution.
    If your degree is not ABET-accredited, you would need to ask NCEES to perform the credentials evaluation service for you.
  2. Pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam.
  3. Acquire a minimum of four years of acceptable engineering experience.
  4. Pass the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) Exam.
  5. Submit an application and all required documentation to the desired U.S. state licensing board.

The FE exam is typically the first step in the process leading to a professional engineering license. It is designed for recent graduates and students who are close to finishing an undergraduate engineering degree.

The FE exam is 110 multiple-choice questions in a six-hour duration. The exam is available in seven versions (disciplines), where you choose your most suitable discipline based on the exam specifications. The available disciplines are:

  • FE Chemical
  • FE Civil
  • FE Electrical and Computer
  • FE Environmental
  • FE Industrial
  • FE Mechanical
  • FE Other Disciplines

You can read more about the FE exam at the NCEES website.

The PE exam tests your ability to practice competently in a particular engineering discipline. It is designed for engineers who have gained at least four years of post-college work experience in their chosen engineering discipline.

The PE exam is a paper-based test that lasts eight hours and is split into a morning and afternoon session.

For the PE exam specifications for the different disciplines, click here.
 

The FE is administered year-round in testing windows at the AUC ESS-authorized Pearson VUE Testing Center, AUC New Cairo.

You can register for the exam anytime throughout the year. Just click on the FE Registration page in the menu to your left to view the registration procedures and exam schedule.

The PE exam is held once a year at AUC, around the month of October.

To register, click here.

For more information call tel: +20.2.2615.4333 or email [email protected].

To view the details of the exam schedule, click here.

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology( ABET) is a nongovernmental organization that accredits post-secondary education programs in applied science, computing, engineering and engineering technology.

The accreditation of these programs occurs mainly in the United States, as well as internationally. Currently, there are only two institutions in Egypt that provide programs that ABET accredits: The American University in Cairo and the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport. To find out whether your degree is from an accredited program, read more on ABET-accredited program search.

NCEES requires all the exam applicants to either graduate from ABET-accredited programs or to evaluate their degree to ABET standards.

For non-ABET degrees, NCEES offers you the credentials evaluation service, where your academic degree will be evaluated to ABET standards. Once you pass the evaluation, you may enter the NCEES exams.

The evaluation is an administrative process (there are no additional exams) where NCEES will look into the details of your academic degree. The credentials evaluation is performed solely by NCEES.

Note: The AUC does not perform or interfere in the evaluation process.

For more information on the NCEES credentials evaluation service, click here.

We also recommend that you watch this video about the evaluation process.

Candidates who don't have ABET-accredited degrees may also need to fulfill general education deficiencies in order to fulfill NCEES requirements successfully. We offer general education courses for engineers in order to help candidates fulfill these deficiencies.

Although TOEFL or IELTS are not required to enter the exams, you will need sufficient proficiency in English to pass the exams.

FE exam is a self-study. However, ESS offers a preparation course for the general part of it.

NCEES will forward exam day instructions upon registration for the exam.

To view the list of NCEES-approved calculators, click here.

For more information and if you have further questions, email [email protected] or call tel: +20.2.2615.2664/2667.